Caenorhabditis Sieve: A Low-tech Instrument and Methodology for Sorting Small Multicellular Organisms

Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is a well-established model organism used across a range of basic and biomedical research. Within the nematode research community, there is a need for an affordable and effective way to maintain large, age-matched populations of C. elegans. Here, we present a methodology for mechanically sorting and cleaning C. elegans. Our aim is to provide a cost-effective, efficient, fast, and simple process to obtain animals of uniform sizes and life stages for their use in experiments. This tool, the Caenorhabditis Sieve, uses a custom-built lid system that threads onto common conical lab tubes and sorts C. elegans based on body size. We also demonstrate that the Caenorhabditis Sieve effectively transfers animals from one culture plate to another allowing for a rapid sorting, synchronizing, and cleaning without impacting markers of health, including motility and stress-inducible gene reporters. This accessible and innovative tool is a fast, efficient, and non-stressful option for maintaining C. elegans populations.

Lowbush cranberry acts through DAF-16/FOXO signaling to promote increased lifespan and axon branching in aging posterior touch receptor neurons

Medicinal berries are appreciated for their health benefits, in traditional ecological knowledge and nutrition science. Determining the cellular mechanisms underlying the effects of berry supplementation may contribute to our understanding of aging. Here, we report that lowbush cranberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) treatment causes marked nuclear localization of the central aging-related transcription factor DAF-16/FOXO in aged Caenorhabditis elegans. Further, functional DAF-16 is required for the lifespan extension, improved mechanosensation, and posterior touch receptor neuron morphological changes induced by lowbush cranberry treatments. DAF-16 is not observed in nuceli nor required for lifespan extension in lifespan-extending Alaskan blueberry treatments and, while DAF-16 is not visibly induced into the nucleus in lifespan-extending Alaskan chaga treatments, it is required for chaga-induced lifespan extension. These findings underscore the importance of DAF-16 in the aging of whole organisms and touch receptor neurons and also, importantly, indicate that this critical pathway is not always activated upon consumption of functional foods that impact aging.

Mechanosensory Neuron Aging: Differential Trajectories with Lifespan-Extending Alaskan Berry and Fungal Treatments in Caenorhabditis elegans

Many nutritional interventions that increase lifespan are also proposed to postpone age-related declines in motor and cognitive function. Potential sources of anti-aging compounds are the plants and fungi that have adapted to extreme environments. We studied the effects of four commonly consumed and culturally relevant Interior Alaska berry and fungus species (bog blueberry, lowbush cranberry, crowberry, and chaga) on the decline in overall health and neuron function and changes in touch receptor neuron morphology associated with aging. We observed increased wild-type Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan and improved markers of healthspan upon treatment with Alaskan blueberry, lowbush cranberry, and chaga extracts. Interestingly, although all three treatments increased lifespan, they differentially affected the development of aberrant morphologies in touch receptor neurons. Blueberry treatments decreased anterior mechanosensory neuron (ALM) aberrations (i.e., extended outgrowths and abnormal cell bodies) while lowbush cranberry treatment increased posterior mechanosensory neuron (PLM) aberrations, namely process branching. Chaga treatment both decreased ALM aberrations (i.e., extended outgrowths) and increased PLM aberrations (i.e., process branching and loops). These results support the large body of knowledge positing that there are multiple cellular strategies and mechanisms for promoting health with age. Importantly, these results also demonstrate that although an accumulation of abnormal neuron morphologies is associated with aging and decreased health, not all of these morphologies are detrimental to neuronal and organismal health.

Morphological remodeling of C. elegans neurons during aging is modified by compromised protein homeostasis

Understanding cellular outcomes, such as neuronal remodeling, that are common to both healthy and diseased aging brains is essential to the development of successful brain aging strategies. Here, we used Caenorhabdits elegans to investigate how the expression of proteotoxic triggers, such as polyglutamine (polyQ)-expanded huntingtin and silencing of proteostasis regulators, such as the ubiquitin–proteasome system (UPS) and protein clearance components, may impact the morphological remodeling of individual neurons as animals age. We examined the effects of disrupted proteostasis on the integrity of neuronal cytoarchitecture by imaging a transgenic C. elegans strain in which touch receptor neurons express the first 57 amino acids of the human huntingtin (Htt) gene with expanded polyQs (128Q) and by using neuron-targeted RNA interference in adult wild-type neurons to knockdown genes encoding proteins involved in proteostasis. We found that proteostatic challenges conferred by polyQ-expanded Htt and knockdown of specific genes involved in protein homeostasis can lead to morphological changes that are restricted to specific domains of specific neurons. The age-associated branching of PLM neurons is suppressed by N-ter polyQ-expanded Htt expression, whereas ALM neurons with polyQ-expanded Htt accumulate extended outgrowths and other soma abnormalities. Furthermore, knockdown of genes important for ubiquitin-mediated degradation, lysosomal function, and autophagy modulated these age-related morphological changes in otherwise normal neurons. Our results show that the expression of misfolded proteins in neurodegenerative disease such as Huntington’s disease modifies the morphological remodeling that is normally associated with neuronal aging. Our results also show that morphological remodeling of healthy neurons during aging can be regulated by the UPS and other proteostasis pathways. Collectively, our data highlight a model in which morphological remodeling during neuronal aging is strongly affected by disrupted proteostasis and expression of disease-associated, misfolded proteins such as human polyQ-Htt species.

Insulin signaling in the aging of healthy and proteotoxically stressed mechanosensory neurons

Insulin signaling is central to cellular metabolism and organismal aging. However, the role of insulin signaling in natural and proteotoxically stressed aging neurons has yet to be fully described. We studied aging of Caenorbaditis elegans mechanosensory neurons expressing a neurotoxic expanded polyglutamine transgene (polyQ128), or lacking this proteotoxicity stressor (polyQ0), under conditions in which the insulin signaling pathway was disrupted by RNA interference (RNAi). We describe specific changes in lifespan, mechanosensory neuronal morphologies, and mechansensory function following RNAi treatment targeting the insulin signaling pathway. Overall, we confirmed that transcription factor DAF-16 is neuroprotective in the proteotoxically stressed model, though not strikingly in the naturally aging model. Decreased insulin signaling through daf-2 RNAi improved mechanosensory function in both models and decreased protein aggregation load in polyQ128, yet showed opposing effects on accumulation of neuronal aberrations in both strains. Decreased daf-2 signaling slightly enhanced mechanosensation while greatly enhancing branching of the mechanosensory neuron axons and dendrites in polyQ0 animals, suggesting that branching is an adaptive response in natural aging. These effects in polyQ0 did not appear to involve DAF-16, suggesting the existence of a non-canonical DAF-2 pathway for the modulation of morphological adaptation. However, in polyQ128 animals, decreased daf-2 signaling significantly enhanced mechanosensation while decreasing neuronal aberrations. Unlike other interventions that reduce the strength of insulin signaling, daf-2 RNAi dramatically redistributed large polyQ128 aggregates to the cell body, away from neuronal processes. Our results suggest that insulin signaling strength can differentially affect specific neurons aging naturally or under proteotoxic stress.